Stinson Beach Sunset, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

A virtue of the short days of winter is that one doesn’t have to wait long for sunset. This photo—of a brief but spectacular sunset over Stinson Beach, California—was taken shortly before 5PM on December 21, the winter solstice and shortest day of the year.

Exposure data: Nikon D300, 18mm, circular polarizer, 1/50 of a second at f/9 and ISO 100, tripod mounted; multi-RAW processed using five versions of the original RAW capture.